Best Buy Apologizes For Hiking Up Water Prices During Hurricane Harvey

Best Buy is scrambling for some good will right now after the electronics chain apologized for raising water prices for Texas citizens at one of its stores during the Hurricane Harvey disaster. According to reports, the store, which normally doesn’t sell water on this scale, seemingly tried to capitalize on the need for relief.

The store was caught selling 12-packs of Smartwater for $29.98 and 24-packs of Dasani for a whopping $42.96. A photo of the display went viral this week, amid allegations of price gouging in the wake of the Harvey.

Best Buy now admits, “This was a big mistake on the part of a few employees at one store on Friday. As a company we are focused on helping, not hurting affected people. We’re sorry and it won’t happen again.”

A rep for the retail tech giant added … Best Buy doesn’t normally sell water, and that the employees at this specific store were pricing the packs based on single bottle prices.

The quote above from the Best Buy rep was reportedly delivered to Business Insider initially.

One Houston resident sent me a pic of water he saw being sold for *$42* at a nearby Best Buy. They were kind enough to offer $29 bottles too pic.twitter.com/8dKz3sJJM1